This three layer map I produced for my study of diseases amongst the elderly. On the top are parts of the US where two types of elderly care related mental health ICDs are found–one American and the other traditionally Asian. The middle layer depicts the Asian culturally linked illness on its own. The first layer depicts background mapping data overlain by the US case history of this mental health condition.

These three layer maps are easy to produce, and have the additional value of being useful for mapping a very unique three-dimensional dataset gathered only in urban settings–this can be used to depict people within buildings, with each layer depicting one of the floors of the building.

There are a few places in the country where this kind of mapping is powerful. The most obvious example for me is the outbreak of heat stroke and exhaustion cases several decades ago in Chicago. Another use pertains to V-code and E-code claims for such events as domestic abuse, crime and drug use for high rise buildings set up in low income areas. Occupancy of a building can be evaluated using this building. Outbreaks due to contagious disease may also be mapped.

The recent outbreak of Legionnaire’s reminded me of the value of this algorithm. In large bulding settings, where a disease is suspected to be generated by the local environment setting, you can use this procedure to illustrate in three dimensions the cases that are reported.

This type of mapping uses non-GIS software to be produced, and common formulas to generate the algorithm. The value of that algorithm is detailed more extensively at my site nationalpopulationhealthgrid.com.